Thursday, March 26, 2015

Allie Pleiter gets CHUNKY!

“How can you write four books a year???”

I get asked that a lot—as do many Love Inspired authors. It’s one of the joys—and the challenges—of working in category fiction. I’m happy our readers have such an appetite for our stories, look forward to the next books in our series, and become fans of individual authors. I like to think I write characters my readers want to be friends with, to invite out for lunch, to have as next door neighbors. It’s part of the wonder of books, isn’t it? Discovering worlds you want to linger in long after you close the cover?

My smart-aleck answer to the “How can you?” question is usually “One word at a time.” The truth is closer to “with effort and discipline.” For me, that means 1,000 words every morning, 1,000 words every afternoon, five days a week, most weeks a year. It’s the best job in the world, but parts of it are still like every job everywhere. You need to sit down and make it happen. (Or, in my case, get on the treadmill desk and make it happen…)

Today I launched a personal publishing project that lets fellow authors and aspiring writers everywhere in on my Chunky Method of Time Management for Writers. Those 1,000 words I talk about in the previous paragraph are my “chunk.” I use my “chunk” to plan, schedule, and even improve my writing productivity. Now I can let you in on why I take being called “The Chunky Lady” as a compliment :)

This an exciting venture for me, putting into print form a class I’ve been passionate about teaching for years. I’ve been writing fiction and non-fiction since the early days of my career, but have focused on the Love Inspired line for the past several years. It feels good to get out into “teaching” mode again.

Don’t worry, there are plenty of Love Inspired novels still to come from me. In just a few weeks, the story of Ida Lee Landway begun in HOMEFRONT HERO gets its own happy ending in THE DOCTOR’S UNDOING. And I’ll be tackling the third book in the LONE STAR COWBOY LEAGUE continuity series later this year. And who knows—you may be seeing even more independent fiction from me!

6 comments:

Hi Allie, I'm glad you are so disciplined and write such good books. I've wondered how you managed your writing time and reading your blog here makes me so much more appreciative of all that you and other authors do for us readers. Jenny

Jennifer-I try to be disciplined, but I'll be the first to tell you it doesn't always work :) Still, having a system helps to ensure that I meet with success more often than not. Students tell me it works for them with big papers, too.